Dissecting Taylor’s Sparkly “Opalite” Lyrics
Taylor Swift is singing about gemstones again in her 3rd track from The Life of a Showgirl, Opalite. But this is quite a different sentiment than she expressed in her previous sparkle-studded track, Bejeweled.
Opalite sees our showgirl narrator put her dark and stormy past behind her and step into the dawn of a new day. But what does it really mean? I’ve got all the possible interpretations for you in my annotated lyrics.
I’m your Swiftie English teacher, and this is a deep dive into the lyrics of Opalite, line by line.
- Title: Opalite
- Track: 3, The Life of a Showgirl
- Written By: Taylor Swift, Max Martin & Shellback
- Pen: Fountain + Glitter Gel Pen
Opalite Narrative Synopsis
- POV: First person, speaking to versions of her past self & friends, lovers, fans, etc.
- Setting: In the present, relaying lessons she’s learned in the past
- Characters: Narrator (“I”), subject (“you,” which changes as the song goes on)
- Mood: Optimistic, positive, c’est la vie
- Conflict: Life can feel heavy, and it’s easy to get stuck mulling over the past.
- Theme: Personal evolution & making your own happiness
- Lesson: Your life can change in a moment: you just have to be open to letting it.
Opalite Lyrics Meaning: Line by Line
Please note, this is only my interpretation of Taylor Swift’s writing. Art is subjective, and the only person who truly knows what these lyrics mean – or what she intended them to mean – is Taylor herself.
What these lyrics mean to you is really what matters, and there is no single “correct” interpretation. I hope my annotations below I can simply point out things you may have missed, open the door to alternate meanings, and draw parallels between Taylor’s other lyrics and art.
Verse 1: Ghosts of my Past
“I had a bad habit of missing lovers past,” our showgirl opens the first verse, calling back to her previous albums, The Tortured Poets Department and Midnights. In those long, dark nights of the soul, she used to think old lovers were the cure to her unhappiness.
“My brother used to call it, ‘Eating out of the trash’,” she quips, in the most hilarious line of the song. To “eat out of the trash” means to try to revive something that’s already been disposed of. You tossed it aside for a reason, but on particularly “hungry” nights, it might be tempting.
But the simple “my brother used to call it” is also important, as it sets up one of the major themes of the song: lessons learned from others, or learned on her own, which she’s now passing down to her audience.
“It’s never gonna last,” she continues, which could mean that this “bad habit” won’t land her anywhere she wants to be. But it could also refer to a metaphorical “expiration date” of those relationships. You shouldn’t go back to “snack on” them after they’re past their prime.
“I thought my house was haunted, I used to live with ghosts,” she says of this previous dark period. Ghosts and hauntings are a common metaphor in Taylor’s universe, where they often symbolize regret. But she’s also been haunted by the “ghosts” of past relationships in songs like loml and would’ve, could’ve, should’ve.
But these prior hauntings are all in the past now. Has she finally hired a “priest to come and exorcise my demons?”
“And all the perfect couples said, ‘When you know, you know’, and, ‘When you don’t, you don’t’,” she closes out the first verse. She looks to couples she admires for advice, but they all say the same thing: you’ll just know when you’ve found the right person. If you don’t know if it’s the right person, it’s not. Your intuition will tell you everything.
But this could also be a lyrical reference to Lana Del Rey’s song Margaret, written for friends Jack Antonoff and his wife Margaret Qualley (also mutual friends and collaborators of Taylor’s). They could be one of the “perfect couples” Taylor refers to in this lyric, but in any case, the sentiment is the same.
Pre-Chorus 1: “It Ends When it Ends”
“And all of the foes, and all of the friends,” she writes in the first pre-chorus, “They’ve seen it before, they’ll see it again.” She surmises that everyone goes through this cycle, from darkness to light, from breakups to weddings, from depression to happiness. They’ll see dark times again, and they’ll see brighter times ahead, as is the cyclical nature of life.
But “foes” and “friends” also ties into one of the larger themes of the album – conflict – as explored in songs like Cancelled, Actually Romantic, and Father Figure.
“Life is a song, it ends when it ends,” she continues, “I was wrong.” Previously, she assumed seasons of life would simply end when they ended. But as she’s learned, which she’ll explore more in the chorus, you have more control over your own happiness than you realize.
“But my mama told me,” she closes out the pre-chorus, leading into another piece of important advice that she’ll flesh out in the following lines.
Chorus: Make Your Own Happiness
As her mother has told her, “It’s alright, you were dancing through the lightning strikes.”
‘It’s alright now,’ her mother says, ‘you were making the best of a bad situation.’ The “lightning strikes” are terrible personal or professional events that happen, seemingly out of nowhere. But instead of sheltering to avoid getting struck, she dances through the storm.
She used to be “Sleepless in the onyx night, but now the sky is opalite.” These two gemstone metaphors are central to the message of the song.
Onyx is a jet-black type of naturally-occurring quartz. It’s long been associated with bad luck, sadness, and bad dreams. An “onyx night” is therefore a long, dark night of the soul, filled with depression, longing, and restlessness, as she explored in both Midnights and TTPD.
Opalite, on the other hand, is a pearlescent man-made gemstone, usually white and/or light blue like the sky. The distinction is in how these two “gems” are created: one is mined, and one is created by man.
The “sky” (her metaphorical future and happiness) hasn’t just cleared magically on its own. It happened intentionally. She’s created her own happiness.
This is quite a different take on gemstone metaphors than she used in the previous Bejeweled. In that track from Midnights, a jealous or controlling partner was trying to dim her innate shine. But here, it’s shining because of a partner, and because she’s let go of things that no longer serve her.
“Oh, my Lord,” she continues, “Never met no one likе you before.” She could be speaking to this unique person who has contributed to her new, sunnier disposition. Their sunnier outlook has helped her take on the same worldview. But she could also be speaking to herself, or to her younger self, as in “I haven’t met the new me yet.”
“You had to make your own sunshinе,” she says to this unknown person, “But now the sky is opalite.” This, too, could be speaking to a past version of herself, who was stuck in the “onyx night.”
If she’s addressing another character in the song, they have much in common. They both had to create their own happiness, and choose joy during unhappy times. But now the sun shines over both of them. Now their “sky” – their world, their future, and their outlook – is shimmering beautiful.
Verse 2: “Starving ‘til you’re not”
The second verse is still in first person, but it seems to be addressing someone in particular, possibly the character that she references in the end of the chorus.
“You couldn’t understand it, why you felt alone,” she says to this unknown character.
On the outside, they seemed to have it all. So why did it feel so empty inside? This, too, could be addressed to her past self or younger self. This particular theme is also explored in Elizabeth Taylor, where the “showgirls” have it all materially, but are emotionally starved.
“You were in it for real, she was in her phone,” she continues, “And you were just a pose.” This character was really invested in this relationship, but their partner wasn’t. She was “in her phone”, living for what things look like, rather than what they actually are. He was “just a pose” – an accessory for Instagram, used for popularity, or clout, or aesthetics.
“And don’t we try to love love?” she asks this person, herself, and her audience at large, “We give it all we got.” But love isn’t always inherently lovable. It “hurts, or bleeds, or fades in time.” Still, we want it to work, so we try our best to hold on.
“You finally left the table,” she continues, closing out the second verse with, “and what a simple thought, you’re starving ’til you’re not.”
This is a loaded metaphor that has multiple interpretations, the most obvious being that she’s left the table from right where you left me. “Help, I’m still at the restaurant,” she says in that track about feeling stuck and abandoned.
Another is the table from tolerate it : “I lay the table with the fancy shit, and watch you tolerate it.”
But there’s also a popular saying that we shouldn’t try to get a seat at a table we’re not invited to. In the context of love, this means if someone doesn’t want and value us for who we are, we shouldn’t try to be “fed” (fulfilled) by them.
In any case, she tells us, it’s “a simple thought”: just get up and leave. Find a “table” where you’re satiated, and there’s a place laid for you. You’re “starving” – for attention, for love, for belonging – until you’re truly fed. And sometimes that can happen in the blink of a twinkling eye.
Pre-Chorus & Chorus 2: “Never Made No One Like You Before”
“And all of the foes and all of the friends,” she repeats in the second pre-chorus, “Have messed up before, they’ll mess up again.” This echoes the sentiment of the previous pre-chorus, where the “foes and friends” have seen it all before. Life is cyclical, and we make mistakes. We choose the wrong people. We learn our lessons.
“Life is a song, it ends when it ends,” she continues, “You move on.” When the song is over, you move onto the next track. There will always be another “song”: a period of life where you’re happy, or sad, or fulfilled, or unfulfilled. But if you don’t move onto the next track, and continue to repeat the past, you’ll never discover the wonders to come.
The final line switches from her mother’s advice to her own: “And that’s when I told you…” She’s taking these lessons learned, from others or from herself, and passing them down to us.
The chorus repeats, with one crucial word changed: “Never met no one like you before” changes to “never made no one like you before.” This echoes the major theme of the song: you have to make your own happiness.
Again, who she’s speaking to here is up for debate. It could be this character with the terrible girlfriend, it could be herself (as in, she’s created this new version of herself), or it could be us. But at any rate, the crucial point is that she’s made it. She’s created it. And now she’s happy, because she chose to be.
Bridge: This Too Shall Pass
“This is just a storm inside a teacup,” she begins the bridge. A “storm in a teacup” is a common British metaphor that means there’s a big deal being made about something relatively small.
Here, it also means that in the grand scheme of things, this “storm” is contained. It’s small, though it may look scary.
“But shelter here with me, my love,” she says, offering solace to her love, where they can ride out the “thunder like a drum.” Because what happens when the storm of the onyx night passes? The sky will turn opalite.
“This life will beat you up, up, up, up,” she continues, with the repeated “up” mimicking the beat of a drum. But there’s “beat up” and “pick up,” and we get the sense that their trajectory is headed north, not south. It’s going up, not beating up.
“This is just a temporary speed bump,” she says, “But failure brings you freedom.” Life throws speed bumps in your way, but what do those do? Cause you to slow down. Look around. Proceed with caution.
This failure is a good thing, she says, because it will free you from the constraints of perfectionism. Once you realize this cyclical nature of life – failures to successes, and there and back again – you can zoom out and appreciate how freeing this surrender is. It’s the c’est la vie of it all, and that’s a liberating worldview to take.
“And I can bring you love, love, love, love, love,” she says, assuring this character that no matter what happens, she’s got their emotional needs covered.
“Don’t you sweat it, baby,” she closes out the bridge, then repeats the chorus one last time before closing this track. ‘Don’t you worry about a thing’, she says, because of all the lessons learned, this one is the most important: this too shall pass.
All the storms have passed. And though they will roll in again, she’s got a new take on life and love. Now that the skies have cleared, she sees what’s possible, and she wants us to know that she’s seen the view from the other side of the mountain.
Nothing but clear skies ahead, as long as you realize that you can simply choose to be happy instead of putting that same old song on repeat (though putting this song on repeat? Valid).
More from The Life of a Showgirl
